Ordinary 26

The Twenty – Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Amos 6:1, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31

We have become a world that is very cruel to people.

Refugee children are dying at national borders and are separated from their parents. For what reason?  Children, and particularly women, are being sold and used as slaves in worldwide human trafficking.  People are murdered in the streets of the Philippines to supposedly rid the country of drug dealers and users. People are being beheaded and burned alive in the name of religion. The resurgence of Anti – Semitism from the shadows with its false smears against the Jewish people. The lack of respect and the inability to engage in civil discourse from the highest offices of government, academia and the church to our neighborhoods. The cruelty in the anonymous responses on Facebook, live streaming, and other forms of social media that even have led some young people to commit suicide.

We have created and tolerate an atmosphere of cruelty.  Why?

From all corners of the world we hear cries for mercy and compassion. It is the cry of Lazarus, poor and diseased, at the doorsteps of the world. It is the cry of Joseph who goes unnoticed by people who are comfortable, well – fed, and distracted by their multiple forms of entertainment. It is the cry of many in our world, many here in our midst, that go unheeded: mercy, mercy.

It is what we cry out to God for at the beginning of Mass, “Lord, have mercy,” “Christ, have mercy.”  What are we crying out for?  Do we even know?

In the opening prayer today we prayed, “O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy…” Many people today would not equate mercy with power. Mercy, forgiveness, and compassion are seen as weaknesses. Yet that is the essence of God and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Even as God imposes justice on Adam and Eve in that they must leave the garden because of their disobedience, God also clothes them with leather garments – mercy. As God imposes justice on Cain for murdering his brother Abel, God also marks Cain so no one will murder him in retaliation – mercy. As Jesus is being crucified, he forgives those who are crucifying him – mercy.

To be God is to be merciful.  The opening prayer acknowledged that attribute.

But mercy must be more than an attribute of God. Is it not the key to a Christian life? That is why Pope Francis has re – envisioned the church in our times not as a museum in which to warehouse the past or a bastion from which to protect orthodoxy but rather as a field hospital – a place of mercy and compassion.

But the message of God’s mercy is not a message of cheap grace. God expects us to do what is right and just. In God’s mercy, God holds back his justified wrath in order to provide us the opportunity for conversion. Mercy is ultimately the grace to change our lives. In the end, what happened to Cain? We don’t know expect that the mark placed on him by God gave him an opportunity to change his life. What happened to the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus? We don’t know except that, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” gave them an opportunity to change their lives.  Mercy is a commitment from God to be with us and a possibility of a new future with the divine Trinity.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation offers each of us that same opportunity; to experience God’s mercy and be provided with an opportunity to change our lives. Without God’s mercy and grace we remain in our sin.

“O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy…” The opening prayer then continued, “bestow your grace abundantly upon us and make [us hasten] to attain your promises…” Mercy must be bestowed on us by God. In offering mercy and compassion to others we bestow on them ‘something’ that we don’t have but must first receive. Mercy, forgiveness and compassion are creative new beginnings that cannot be derived from this world because they come from the heart of God.

If we can create and tolerate a culture of cruelty, can we not also, with God’s grace, create a culture of mercy?